A Welsh firefighter deployed to Turkey to find missing casualties in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that has wrecked much of the Hatay province said “nothing could have prepared” her for what she had faced.
Emma Atcherley, from Bedwas in Caerphilly borough, is one of 77 search and rescue specialists scrambled from 14 fire and rescue services across the UK a week ago to start operations at the town of Antakya within a critical 72-hour window - working day and night to rescue people from the rubble.
Emma, who just days ago was enjoying normal life working with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service as a crew manager at Cardiff Central Station, relived the horror of what she had seen, including bodies piled high after being bulldozed out of the rubble. “I don’t think I’ve cried yet but throughout the day you go to a work site and you are up and you are down. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster,” the wife and mother-of-two said.
